More wedding pics and fun decorations

 

Jennie put up some wonderful pictures on her photography blog of Ally and Steve's amazing wedding. These are just a couple of them:) You can see more at http://www.jennieslade.com/blog/ 

Jennie is such a fabulous photographer...and fabulous at everything else too:) Love U!!!

I wanted to put up some pics on how we made the cool "A" and "S" moss letters that hung on the front doors at the reception...

 I had my dad, the amazing Papa Jack, sketch letters on some foam core board. Then I cut them out with an exacto knife, and painted the letters a dark green. Then I placed them upside down on a roll of moss and traced the letters. Cut out the moss, glue it to the letters...and waalaa:)

It was so easy and once the pretty ribbons were added for hanging they looked fabulous!

Our favorite superhero is 4 :):):)

Yep, Levi is 4 years old today...he is so flippin' cute! Happy birthday buddy. We love you!!!!
 How did he go so quickly from this....

To this ...

Beautiful Slade family!!!! We love you all!

 Levi shared a birthday cake with Taylor last night at our Olympic Kick Off / Birthday Bash.
It was so much fun! More pics on the big party to come...we are just party animals haha!

Happy 12th Birthday Taylor!!!

Happy Birthday Taylor...

We are the luckiest to get to be your grandparents!!

We love you!

  

We had a blast going shopping and getting pedicures and manicures...

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Happy summer day in July 2002

"The Canyon"

One of our favorite traditions is to go to American Fork Canyon each summer with Aunt Lisa and Uncle James.

 Noah always has cute girls by his side:)

 Bristol, Janika, Brett and Azurdee came too!!! It was so fun to see them!!!!

Levi and Bristol are best buddies!

Kangaroo Zoo

 Every summer when we go to Utah, the kids have to go to Kangaroo Zoo...they never get tired of that place!

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With the Olympics coming in just a couple of weeks, it has brought back lots of memories of Amy's dream to play on the Olympic Volleyball team. She was invited to train at the USA training facility in Colorado Springs when she was 15 and was chosen to be a member of the USA Junior National team. She played volleyball all over the world and loved every minute of it.

Then in high school Amy suffered a really bad back injury... and those plans had to be changed. 

I remember taking her to a doctor to get the results of an MRI and hearing him tell Amy that she would never play college volleyball with a back as bad as hers...I also remember hearing Amy say, "Watch me!" as she walked out of his office. 

Amy had a great college career...but her back had had enough, so dreams of playing professionally in Europe and maybe even in the Olympics came to an end. 

I am so grateful for Amy and her desire to always pursue the very best life has to offer, even if the road is a bit different that she had once dreamed.

 

T-Shirt Quilt

 A while ago Amy went to work planning and cutting out some of her many t-shirts from over the years...she wanted me to help her make a t-shirt quilt out of them, so they wouldn't just be stuck in a box somewhere. Well, I'm sorry it took me so long to get the right minky (the the oh so soft gray fabric on the back) and finish sewing each square... and then put it all together for this awesome quilt. It turned out fabulous! Amy loves it!!
I am so happy it finally got all finished. 

Ally is now gathering her t-shirts and getting them all ready for her quilt:)

Football Camp

A couple of weeks ago Jennie and I took the kids to Utah for some cousin time. We had a blast! For the first four days we were there, Kaden went to a football camp at BYU. They worked hard for about 7 hours each day. It was all held outside and I swear they ran 10 miles or more everyday!! It was really tough and they expected a lot out of the boys. I'm so glad Kaden had the opportunity to go...I was probably a little more happy about it than Kaden was, but by the end of camp he had made some great friends and learned a little bit more what it means to have a good work ethic and always do your best. He's already talking about going to camp again next year:)

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Our annual summer beach trip is coming soon...I can't wait! 

It really is one of my very favorite traditions that we have done over the years. 

So many wonderful memories.

  

"Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters..."